loc978:Rasmussen Reports survey method: Pulse Opinion Research calls random listed phone numbers in the middle of the day with an automated touch-tone survey featuring a prerecorded voice.

Riddle me this: who the hell doesn't hang up on that crap immediately? What we're talking about here is 54% of those people.Oh, also, they have to have a land phone line to participate. They're not allowed to call cell phones. That pretty much rules out most of Generation X or anyone younger.

Thank you, other person who understands selection bias in statistics. Hell, the fact that a mere 1000 people is supposed to represent all of America is insulting as well

In addition, while wording is claimed to be neutral, a simple look at the questions will change that.

"2* Do violent video games lead to more violence in our society? "

Notice the fact that they worded it so that "violent" was almost repeated with "violence," a subtle trick to connect the two. In addition, it wasn't using a more passive wording, such as 'video games containing violence (which is a word that needs to be changed anyways)' but rather "violent video games."

Statistics absolutely can be anecdotal. If I tell you that the Big Mac causes people to get fat you can "No, it doesn't. Look at these statistics! Since the Big Mac was introduced there is not a larger percentage of fat people", and you would be wrong. Because the one does not equal the other. Perhaps whatever people used to eat that made them fat is no longer being eaten since the Big Mac came out. Just because there aren't more dead people doesn't mean that a product isn't deadly. It just doesn't work like that.

Yes, let's completely ignore the countless studies that found no correlation between crime and violent video games.

I am pretty sure the article is assuming that we already knew about this stuff.

Let's not. Those are great. Those should be used as argument instead of anecdotal, worthless evidence.

loc978:Rasmussen Reports survey method: Pulse Opinion Research calls random listed phone numbers in the middle of the day with an automated touch-tone survey featuring a prerecorded voice.

Riddle me this: who the hell doesn't hang up on that crap immediately? What we're talking about here is 54% of those people.Oh, also, they have to have a land phone line to participate. They're not allowed to call cell phones. That pretty much rules out most of Generation X or anyone younger.

Thank you, other person who understands selection bias in statistics. Hell, the fact that a mere 1000 people is supposed to represent all of America is insulting as well

In addition, while wording is claimed to be neutral, a simple look at the questions will change that.

"2* Do violent video games lead to more violence in our society? "

Notice the fact that they worded it so that "violent" was almost repeated with "violence," a subtle trick to connect the two. In addition, it wasn't using a more passive wording, such as 'video games containing violence (which is a word that needs to be changed anyways)' but rather "violent video games."

I actually did consider this. But no information was given on how exactly it was collected. So just assume the worst.

Rule of thumb: the reliability of a survey can be estimated by dividing 1 by the square root of the number of people you've surveyed. In this case, that's a relibility of about 3%.

Please note that reliable surveys are not the same as unbaised surveys, as noted by the post I quoted in my next post: there's quite a few blatant non-random sampling errors in their process, in my opinion.

Oh dear. Only 1000 adults? That's a pretty small data pool when compared to the whole country. Oy.

Personally, I don't agree. I mean, I'm not always all "Yay, a violent video game AGAIN! Oh boy!" but I also realize that video games don't CAUSE violence. They can trigger it, but the person has to already be predisposed to violence themselves. So really, video games, movies, TV, comics, books, anything could cause them to be violent.

loc978:Rasmussen Reports survey method: Pulse Opinion Research calls random listed phone numbers in the middle of the day with an automated touch-tone survey featuring a prerecorded voice.

Riddle me this: who the hell doesn't hang up on that crap immediately? What we're talking about here is 54% of those people.Oh, also, they have to have a land phone line to participate. They're not allowed to call cell phones. That pretty much rules out most of Generation X or anyone younger.

I missed that. Thanks for sinking another ill-planned survey's usefulness. Although a confirming link would be nice. [Edit] Found that link.

loc978:Rasmussen Reports survey method: Pulse Opinion Research calls random listed phone numbers in the middle of the day with an automated touch-tone survey featuring a prerecorded voice.

Riddle me this: who the hell doesn't hang up on that crap immediately? What we're talking about here is 54% of those people.Oh, also, they have to have a land phone line to participate. They're not allowed to call cell phones. That pretty much rules out most of Generation X or anyone younger.

Thank you, other person who understands selection bias in statistics. Hell, the fact that a mere 1000 people is supposed to represent all of America is insulting as well

In addition, while wording is claimed to be neutral, a simple look at the questions will change that.

"2* Do violent video games lead to more violence in our society? "

Notice the fact that they worded it so that "violent" was almost repeated with "violence," a subtle trick to connect the two. In addition, it wasn't using a more passive wording, such as 'video games containing violence (which is a word that needs to be changed anyways)' but rather "violent video games."

I actually did consider this. But no information was given on how exactly it was collected. So just assume the worst.

Methodology page points out all this (other than the wording, that was just the questions page). They even brag that they have single tone answering machines.

Thank you, other person who understands selection bias in statistics. Hell, the fact that a mere 1000 people is supposed to represent all of America is insulting as well

In addition, while wording is claimed to be neutral, a simple look at the questions will change that.

"2* Do violent video games lead to more violence in our society? "

Notice the fact that they worded it so that "violent" was almost repeated with "violence," a subtle trick to connect the two. In addition, it wasn't using a more passive wording, such as 'video games containing violence (which is a word that needs to be changed anyways)' but rather "violent video games."

I actually did consider this. But no information was given on how exactly it was collected. So just assume the worst.

Methodology page points out all this (other than the wording, that was just the questions page). They even brag that they have single tone answering machines.

Azuaron:Everyone's missing what I think is the most important, and the most hope filled, part of the survey results:

5% of people think the government should be responsible for regulating vg violence71% think parents should be responsible

Hell yes. I don't care what people think about video games contributing to violence, as long as they recognize parents should be responsible for limiting children's exposure.

I was beginning to wonder if I was the only person who read that. Once I read that, I saw the survey as saying "People have opinions, but parents realize that they'll look after their child and let you look after yours."

My sentiments exactly. Do you think if we win this court case, the level of stupid in society will decrease?

lol no if we win the court case get ready to hear "THEY BRIBED THE JUDGES THE CORPORATIONS USED DIRTY BRIBES TO POISON THE MINDS OF OUR CHILDREN WITH VIOLENCE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! IS ANYONE THINKING OF THE CHILDREN"

edit: I am curious on how California could think that its a good idea to posibly elimate even more of their tax revnue through regulation when their deeper in the hole then any other state in the U.S. maby they just get a hard on about the prospect of being forced to pay the defenses legal costs...again

The last time I checked 1000 people is not the population of America. And all these sorts of things have loads of inherent bias, just think only those with enough time to do the survey would be able to actually do it. I

I don't think we should be too worried

mjc0961:No, survey finds that most people surveyed believe video games cause violence. Not that most Americans believe that.

1,000 people is hardly an accurate representation of the millions of people who live in this country. I wish these people and their dumb surveys would fuck off already.

That is the most epic way to describe how I'm feeling right now. Anyhoo, this is the biggest load of bollocks. If violent games were the cause of violent crime then the violent crime statistic would be through the fucking roof. We'd see far more people obviously being incredibly violent if this were genuinely the case, rather than the odd one or two who go on a shooting and -happened- to play video games. Correlation does not imply Causation.Also, according to some people, playing violent games is apparently worse than prior record of violence. Can you imagine the scene?

"Oh, officer, it's terrible, my son was murdered in a bar fight!""I'm sorry maam it was self defense""What? The murderer killed before! He was convicted!""I'm afraid your child played one too many violent video games. He's far more likely to be the perpetrator who started the fight.""But he only played Pong! Once!""I'm sorry maam, there are several precedents. Please drop the matter and return to your home."

i think it's funny how you put statistical and evidence in the same sentence.also, most people only reply to a survey if they feel really strongly about something. and since most people who think that videogames do not cause more violence can't be bothered with a survey about it, i would find it logical that this survey proves absolutely nothing except that scared old people have too much time for surveys.

Were the respondents screened as to weather or not they have actually played a video game in the past 15-20 years? Concern over something that you have no experience with pretty much invalidates your opinion. It's why something like a Constitution tries to protect minorities. Overwhelming ignorance is no excuse for public policy.